I’m hoping to start a new feature here, “Days gone by” kinda a look back to older versions of D&D (well any RPG if anyone is game to write an article).

So today I’m going to recall what I class as an unfightable monster. The Exectutioners Hood an odd monster from first edition D&D, in Monster Manual II.

Executioners Hood

MMII Excert Text

Most players (whether they DM or not) will have idly flicked through the pages of any of the DM’s books, it’s inevitable – but as a player I like to at the very least try to play as if I dont know the monster I am fighting until I’ve encountered them before or had succesful skill checks (like nature).  So having that in mind lets look at the monster it’s “rare” so there’s not alot of chance you’ll have met one before, now look at the unique way of immoblising the mob – Strong Brandy – yes you read that 100% correctly,  now remembering you have no idea of how to fight this thing, hands up who would willingly pour brandy over a creature that is killing your friend on the off-chance that it’ll make the monster sleepy and that it’ll fall off – in addition you also need to be carrying strong brandy, and be able to pry it out of the now crying Dwarfs hand to experiment with…… So I present to you a monster you that in all honesty cannot fight, the player character is effectively a write off either you kill the monster and thus in the process pretty much kill the character (hoping and praying that he has more hit points than the monster), or you leave well alone and the character is dead anyway…….

And so I present in my opinion an unfightable monster

When you create a new character, how do you decide what to play?

I’m going to start the ball rolling and explain my reasoning and methods behind character generation……….

Firstly, and being brutally honest, we (the players with the nominated DM) sit around a table and discuss options, we pretty much discuss it in a MMORPG kind of way – roles to fill pretty much fit the basics of MMORPG’s perfectly, that being, Tank, DPS or healer – sure there are utility classes, but as we mostly play with 3 player characters, we tend not to have enough flexibility to fill utility roles until we have a few levels of experience behind us and can then consider multiclassing.

Once our role in the party has been identified it’s up to choosing the exact class you want to play, in my current campaign I’m the tank, so I had a good look at my options (using 4th edition D&D in the example, although it works for pretty much all RPG’s) I had the PHB2 available when I rolled this character so I chose the Warden class, which has a good selection of defensive capabilities, and some nice defence abilities.

Once I have the class, I do the same with races, I start at this point to get a feel for the character, creating a story why am I adventuring, what gain is there, where’s the meeting point, why would I be adventuring, if I can answer these questions sensibly then I change direction of the character, change class etc, I think it’s a bad character choice if the only reason you can think of for adventuring is: “I wanted to gain wealth and fame” whilst it might be an end result of adventuring, it’s not the best reason and doesn’t give ideas for hooks or plots to the DM.

Now you have the class and the race (in my case, a shifter warden) now I pick up the dice, and create the physical / mental attributes, and fill out the character sheet.

Usually I take some time to write up some bullet points with a outline story for the DM, something that will provide potential hooks and plots and something that tells the DM I’m taking his campaign seriously and intend on developing the character.

So over to you, how do you generate a new player character.

MadAsToast

It’s an interesting question really because this doesn’t just affect you as a gamer but it affects the whole group, if one of you decides to run with the errata then all players should really run with the errata otherwise you’re not all singing from the same hymn sheet (anyone playing bullshit bingo can mark off another square), ideally the errata / no errata call should be down to your GM/DM, and to be brutally honest errata IS important it balances the rule set it clarifies rules that are perhaps not clear and on the whole makes things run alot more smoothly, with the internet being so easy now for most people to get onto (work, home, libraries, internet cafe’s) it’s an absolute breeze to upgrade and use the new rules.

So having decided that we’re running the errata, how do you guys keep a track of whether a change has been applied to a rule, power, item etc – do you chave lots of cut outs all over your treasured books, do you write footnotes alongside things saying check errata? Personally I use “post it” type page markers little sticky notes that can be peeled off without leaving the glue behind use them to identify a rule change, then I can grab the trusty errata at that point – genius no?

Anyways, I guess I should mention what really made me post about errata is that Wizards have made another 4th edition errata available to download from their site, being a nice guy I’ll link it here so you dont have to do loads of searching to find it. ERRATA see a nice big link for you to follow, that link takes you to the download for “everything” in one pdf, alternatively you can download just the errata for the relevant manuals, for these downloads here’s another CLICKY both will open another browser window.

Would love to hear your comments, thoughts and general ramblings about errata, or indeed any other topic – so leave a reply, or alternatively CLICK HERE to visit our forums.

That’s me done, stick a fork in me

I’d like to add big thanks and a massive shout out to Battle Rager who did the art work a while back and has agreed to let this be used on some merchandise.

So without further a-do point your favourite browser to:

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/TheDDI

This will probably be a limited availability run and will change to a newer model in the future to keep this a special edition type thing. These first shirts will be sporting this logo:

Bar Staff T-Shirt

First thing to note is that I’m not going to review in great extent about the ruleset in this post, thats best left for another day – this is to review the book itself, the quality and to help you decide whether it’s something you want to part with your very hard earned cash for.

Lets open with the pretty obvious question:

Do I really need it?

Honestly – yes.  Okay perhaps a little reasoning behind that statement is needed, the bare minimum you’ll need to be a player character in 4th Edition is a copy of the Players Handbook (PHB).

I’m a great fan of quality productions and if I’m going to shell out some of my money I want something good to show for it, and this manual doesn’t disappoint – printed on good quality paper (nothing flimsy here) and a sturdy front and back cover, Inside there’s everything a player will need to know about being a player character using the Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition ruleset, it’s nicely laid out, with clear and concise instructions on rolling up your characters, kitting them out and making them completely ready to start adventuring, my only issue with the content would be probably aimed at the low number of playable classes and races but that I’m guessing is because I played so much 3 and 3.5 where I was spoiled for choices what with all the add-ons etc and now it’s all new we’re back to 8 of each:

• cleric
• fighter
• paladin
• ranger
• rogue
• warlock
• warlord
• wizard

and 8 races:

• dragonborn
• dwarf
• eladrin
• elf
• human
• half-elf
• halfling
• tiefling

but in all honesty that’s me just being down right picky, it takes time to write a new system (which ultimately this is) and I should be more patient……….

Summary: If you want to play 4th Edition D&D just as a player character then you are going to have to buy this book, it will give you everything you need to get a character up and running ready for adventuring, although slightly disappointed with slight shortfall on character/race choices I have to say I’m very happy with the look, feel and quality of this manual.

Verdict: Buy It Now!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The DDI recommend purchasing through Amazon, they have by far the best packaging and delivery deals and have never let me down, we are eternally greatful if you decide to purchase though our links as we get a small donation which enables us to buy more stuff to review – simples no?

This site needs like minded individuals who’d be prepared to give a little time (any amount of time) to write articles, moderate forums etc if you think you have what it takes to be part of the team, head over the the forums, sign up and lets us know in the “I’d really like to be part of the team” thread in general discussion.

MadAsToast

Well, the skeleton of what will be our forums is now open – please take some time to register on the forums and to spend some time joining in, the more people post the more chats develop, so what yer waiting for?  The forums can be found by clicking here or by following the link under “sponsors” it’s the round table – I’ll get links in other places soon.

Like I said previously I’ve been focussing on 4th Edition alot recently so that’s as good a place as any to start reviewing.

In the near future I’m going to be converting Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil to 4th edition too, so I’ll post my notews etc onto the forums, so those of you who have the adventure can get the encounters changes etc (should you want them) obviously I’m not going to post the maps and the text as that’ll be a breach of copyright etc but my work is my work eh!

Anyways short post today but more to come soon.